Get Away
by Momosportif
Summary: Oneshot for Tormod and Muarim in Radiant Dawn when Izuka gives Muarim the feral drug. Tormod knows all too well what a feral one is like and Muarim can't be one. Opening flash back in italics and the rest is present time. Characters are Nintendo's. Enjoy!


Get Away

_Claws and fangs and fur were all too familiar to him and that made absolutely everything about the situation wrong._

"_Hello?" He had paused when the tiger had noticed him and turned its intense yellow eyes his way. _

_It hadn't transformed. _

_"Hey, friend!" He called out, a bit confused now, wiping at a stubborn smudge of dirt on his plump, pinkish cheek and blinking the red fringe of bangs plastered by minimal layer of sweat out of his eyes. He had run until the tiger had sensed his presence and twisted its defined neck muscles to face him. _

_Its tail had flicked down. _

_"Are you okay," he took a step forward in the early evening mist of a rain. The tall damp grass stuck to his legs as he tripped towards the strange feline. The sturdy pack of compact muscles kept its glowing gaze trained on his squinting eyes as it flattered its stomach to the pebble ridden ground and swayed its lowered tail with its haunches from side to side. _

_His foot came down on a twig ad its snap was louder than it should have been. _

_A bird rocketed out of the thicket of trees behind him. _

_In the same moment three things happened, the tensed leg muscles loosed themselves like arrows, his eyes widened in understanding of his danger, and the clouds broke in half and let their burden free. As a growl torn from the frothy jaws of the pouncing laguz drowned thundering skies, the boy found his legs that could keep pace with cats were incapable of moving and as the flash of ivory claws dimmed the lightening bolts in the background, he opened his mouth and found he couldn't scream because he was going to die. He was going to die. He was de-_

_ A streak of deep green rocketed out of the undergrowth to his left and slammed into the attacking tiger bowling it over and rolling with it a few meters before pausing long enough to reveal its identity. A paw swipe across the face and a deep bite to the neck_

_- ad. It was dead. _

_And suddenly he was crying harder than the sky, still stock still, mouth wide as possible with tears cascading down already drenched cheeks. His savior was instantly at his side, back straightening, paws narrowing, face reshaping, and arms enfolding even as a rough tongue caressed his face. He sat limply in the laguz's arms, staring at him through disfiguring water prisms, beginning to feel sick from weeping so hard. A warm nose touched his elbows, shoulders, chest, head in search of injuries, sniffed his arms, neck, back, face for scars from the attack, never stopped even as he chastised in a deep warm voice, _

_"No, no, no… Little one… Get away…" He managed to nod as the snuffling paused and large dark eyes sought his for such an obliging gesture. "Get away from the feral ones… get away…" The little boy allowed his head to be guided to the tiger's shoulder as he began walking past the dead, poisoned laguz back into the forest. "Get away…"_

Claws and fangs and fur are all too familiar to me, and that makes absolutely everything about this situation wrong.

"Maurim," I shake his shoulders again in hopes that he'll notice me and focus his eyes my way.

He hasn't transformed.

"Maurim!" I shake him harder because I'm wholly confused and don't know what else to do, just make him see me. I won't let go until he comes back out of his beast form so he can try to talk.

He's growling at me.

"MAURIM!!" I force his head up and we make eye contact but I don't know the cat behind this stare. He bunches his muscles and I brace myself too late and loose my grasp as he thrashes mightily against the dull gray cot sheets.

His strangled roar is less tiger than it should be.

Vika comes forward as he transforms.

In the same moment three things happen, his body sags effortlessly downward, her hands grip his lax shoulders, and my mind latches onto one solace. As he calls out the words I've been waiting to hear, my legs begin to pound the pebbles outside our tent and as I move farther and farther from where I need to be, I find a loud, desperate voice.

"Sothe! Come quickly!"

Please don't be dying. Please don't be de-

We burst through the canvas flap and into the enclosure. Vika and I trade places and I find words to throw at Sothe even though I have no idea what they are. From cat he comes back, slumped and swaying

- ad. He's not dead.

And suddenly it will all be okay, I can see my tiger in the tense, dark eyes that finally found my own.

"No, no, no… Little one… Get away…" I go limp for a breath because I know these words all too well and they don't fit at all. They're for feral ones. They're for enemies. They're pulling us apart when apart is the last place we need to be.

They'll make him de-

"No, I won't let you!" I shake my head. "I'll,"

–ad,

"die before I let you go feral!"

And I would.

But I don't have to.

You got away.


End file.
